DES PLAINES, Ill. (WGN) — Leaders in the political, business and sports world joined Chicago Bears players and fans to pay respects to Virginia Halas McCaskey at a public visitation in the northwest suburbs Tuesday.
A steady flow of fans and former Bears players made their way to Oehler Funeral Home in Des Plaines during a day-long public visitation for McCaskey.
Former players said her simple presence instilled pride in the team, while fans who came to offer their goodbyes said they’ll miss her steady, patient leadership.
The longtime principal owner of the Bears was soft-spoken and stylish, a warm and wise presence who mainly stayed in the background.
McCaskey often said she was devoted to faith, family and football—and she saw it as her duty to uphold her father’s legacy.
“It was a good life, it really was,” McCaskey told WGN’s Jarrett Payton in a 2019 sit-down interview.
The matriarch of the Monsters of the Midway and “The First Lady of Football,” she died last Thursday at the age of 102. Since then, there have been countless tributes to McCaskey’s extraordinary life, including one at the Super Bowl last Sunday.
She has been heralded on the front pages of newspapers for her “legacy of class” and her status as Chicago’s “Mama Bear.” McCaskey was the only daughter of George Stanley Halas, who founded the Bears and co-founded the NFL in 1920.
After Halas died in 1983, she took over the reins of the team and helped guide the franchise to victory in Super Bowl XX in 1986, and a second appearance in the Big Game in 2006.
In that same 2019 interview with Payton, McCaskey told him what another Super Bowl championship would have meant to her.
“It would mean that my dad’s faith in me has been justified, and it would mean that the fans’ faith in the Chicago Bears has been justified – and that’s enough for me,” McCaskey said at the time.
Her legacy also includes the founding of Bears Care, the team charity that has provided $31.6 million in grants to help disadvantaged children in Chicago over the last two decades.
McCaskey had 11 children of her own, on top of 21 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
A private funeral service for family and friends is scheduled for Wednesday morning at St. Emily Catholic Church in Mount Prospect.